Ch. 1 (World Religions)
This religion, founded by Siddhartha Gautama, emphasizes the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path.
What is Buddhism?
This empire, centered in present-day Turkey, controlled large parts of the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe by the 15th century.
What is the Ottoman Empire?
This trade route connected China with Central Asia and facilitated the exchange of goods like silk and spices.
What is the Silk Roads?
This empire was known for its gunpowder technology, poetry, and art and ruled much of Persia, Afghanistan, and parts of Central Asia.
What is the Safavid Empire?
This Portuguese explorer was the first to sail around the southern tip of Africa, opening a sea route to India.
Who is Vasco da Gama?
This system of labor in the Spanish colonies involved the forced labor of Indigenous people in mines and fields.
What is the encomienda system?
Identify the major belief system that emphasizes the importance of hierarchy, education, and proper relationships.
What is Confucianism?
This West African empire, known for its wealth and promotion of Islam, reached its peak under the rule of Mansa Musa.
What is the Mali Empire?
This Islamic city was a key center of learning and trade during the medieval period, especially renowned for its libraries and scholars.
What is Baghdad?
This empire ruled much of South Asia from the 16th to the 18th century, known for its military conquests and religious tolerance.
What is the Mughal Empire
Identify the European country that established the first successful colony in the Americas, focusing on sugar plantations.
What is Spain?
Identify the significance of the fall of the Mongol Empire on Russia in the 15th century.
What is the rise of Moscow as the center of Russian power, the end of Mongol domination, and the beginning of the consolidation of Russian territories under the leadership of Ivan III, which set the stage for the expansion of the Russian Empire?
This Hindu belief in the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth is central to understanding the religion's view of life.
What is samsara?
Identify the key political achievement of the Mongol Empire under Genghis Khan.
What is the unification of the Mongol tribes and the establishment of the largest contiguous land empire in history?
Identify the two primary exports of the Mali Empire that helped connect it to trade routes across the Sahara.
What is gold and salt?
Identify the impact of Peter the Great’s reforms on Russian society and governance.
What is Peter the Great’s modernization of the Russian state through reforms such as the centralization of power, the establishment of a standing army, the creation of a new administrative system, and the Westernization of Russian culture, which helped transform Russia into a major European power but also deepened autocratic rule?
Identify a major effect of the Columbian Exchange on the Old World.
What is the introduction of new crops, such as potatoes, maize, and tomatoes, which significantly impacted European diets and population growth?
This significant trade city along the West African coast became a center of Islamic scholarship and trade in gold, salt, and slaves.
What is Timbuktu?
Identify a key difference between Sunni and Shia Islam.
What is the dispute over the rightful succession of leadership after the death of the Prophet Muhammad?
Identify a significant feature of the Aztec Empire’s political system.
What is the use of tribute from conquered peoples and the role of the emperor as both a political and religious leader?
Identify a consequence of the expansion of the Mongol Empire on trade in the 13th and 14th centuries.
What is the increased safety and stability along trade routes, known as the Pax Mongolica, which facilitated the flow of goods and ideas?
Identify a significant achievement of the Qing Dynasty in China during the 17th and 18th centuries.
What is the expansion of territory, including Tibet and Taiwan, and the establishment of a strong, centralized bureaucracy?
Explain the long-term economic consequences of the Spanish silver trade for European and global economies in the 16th and 17th centuries.
What is the influx of vast amounts of silver from the Americas into Spain, which fueled inflation (the "Price Revolution") in Europe, disrupted local economies, and created a reliance on precious metals, while also expanding global trade networks and contributing to the rise of global capitalism and the development of European maritime empires?
Explain the role of the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) in shaping European colonization patterns.
What is the division of the New World between Spain and Portugal along a meridian, with Spain gaining control of most of the Americas and Portugal focusing on Africa and Asia, which influenced the development of their respective empires and trade networks, while also leading to conflicts with other European powers?
Explain the long-term religious, cultural, and economic impacts of the Crusades on both Western Europe and the Islamic world.
What is the Crusades led to a significant religious divide between Christianity and Islam, deepening animosity between the two religions. Culturally, the Crusades facilitated the transfer of knowledge, including classical Greek and Roman texts, from the Islamic world to Europe, sparking the European Renaissance. Economically, trade between Europe and the Middle East expanded, increasing European exposure to Eastern goods and ideas. The Crusades also weakened the Byzantine Empire, contributing to its eventual fall to the Ottoman Empire?
Explain the role of feudalism in Western Europe during the 12th and 13th centuries.
What is the decentralized political system based on land grants and personal loyalty, where local lords exercised control over their territories in exchange for military service to a monarch?
Explain the impact of the Indian Ocean trade networks on the Swahili Coast.
What is the development of powerful city-states, such as Kilwa and Mombasa, that thrived through trade in gold, ivory, and slaves, with cultural influences from across Asia, the Middle East, and Africa?
Explain the role of the Janissaries in the Ottoman Empire during the 16th century.
What is the elite military corps made up of Christian boys converted to Islam taken as part of the devshirme system, which played a central role in maintaining the Ottoman military and political power?
Explain the long-term economic and social consequences of the Atlantic slave trade on West Africa.
What is the disruption of local societies and economies, with the loss of millions of people through the slave trade, leading to political instability and the rise of powerful, often militarized, slave-raiding states?
Explain the impact of the introduction of gunpowder technology on global military and political systems during the early modern period.
What is the revolution in warfare, where gunpowder weapons such as cannons and firearms enabled states to develop stronger centralized armies, alter the balance of power among empires, and contribute to the rise of gunpowder empires like the Ottomans, Safavids, and Mughals, while also reshaping territorial conflicts and state-building strategies globally?